Caterpillar Clips
by BellatrixLestrangey
Summary: High school AU, one-shot: Acxa is a bit of a dork who gets a hard time from Lotor, Ezor, and her other classmates. Zethrid decides that she wants to be Acxa's bodyguard.


**A/N: This is my first time working with the Voltron universe outside of crossover, so I'm pretty thrilled. Tbh I don't know why I didn't work with the Voltron-verse sooner. This is gonna have a few little tweaks for the sake of the AU, such as Lotor and Ezor being full-blood Galra. Also, nothing against Lotor nor Ezor, I like them as characters.**

* * *

They don't like the quiet ones. They don't like the weird ones. Sometimes Zethrid got a sense that they automatically equated silent with being weird and just picked on that girl for both—it's just easier that way.

They didn't like her neon purple framed glasses. And they hated those pastel, space caterpillar shaped barrettes she clipped into her hair. Zethrid thought that they were kind of cute, but she would never wear them.

They didn't like her style of dress and how focused she was on her classwork. Zethrid had to admire that kind of drive, she certainly didn't have it. She was more into sports like Weblum Dash and Caterball.

They didn't like the way she wore her hair and despised her mixed blood.

They didn't like her.

But Zethrid did. There was something about her that she liked very much and she didn't even know her name. She ought to ask her to help her study for the upcoming exams. Yet Zethrid didn't think that she had the attention span to learn anything even if she did ask for that help. It was an excuse though, to break the ice with this half-Galra that everyone else seemed to hate. That was something that they had in common, they were both half-breeds. But no one dared harass Zethrid for it, she could give them a pounding that they'd never forget. Unlike her smaller not-yet-companion, who sat silently and took the abuse.

Zethrid though, didn't have a very careful way with words and that was making her unusually reluctant to make an approach. She would muscle through it as she did everything else. Balling her fists confidently and puffing out her chest, she practically stomped up to half-Galra she'd been eye for the last fifteen minutes. She knew that the other had heard her—how could she not have? Yet, her focus didn't leave her doodles. Cute doodles, Zethrid noted; a couple of space mice and a few space caterpillars. There were even a few sketches of Galra and Yupper. One Galra in particular looked a lot like Lotor, sassy, preppy, Lotor.

 **.oOo.**

Acxa was accustomed to ignoring things, especially during mealtimes when most of her classmates made a point of harassing her. She planned to pay this encounter just as little mind. Though the presence behind her was quite overbearing. The sound of heavy breathing wasn't doing her creative flow any good either. Frankly, Acxa was beginning to hope that whoever it was would just start with the jokes and jabs and be done with it already. Instead a pair of hands slammed onto her table. With a notable holler, she flinched back—hard enough to knock her chair over at that.

"Sorry." Came a grumble. "You didn't notice me so I had to get your attention, I didn't think that you were going to toss yourself out of your chair." Acxa felt those offending hands grip her arms and stand her up right. Their owner gave her two swift head pats. "Kay, there. Now that you're all better…" she trailed off, leaving Acxa to speculate where thing was going. "I'm Zethrid!" The muscular half-Galra blurted out. "Now tell me your name."

"It's Acxa."

"Acxa, that's a nice name. It reminds me of these muscle building pills I take. That's a good name."

Acxa blinked, she wasn't sure if she was uncomfortable or thrilled to finally encounter someone less socially inclined than she. "Uh, yeah. I guess."

"I like those." Zethrid pointed to her sketches. "They're really good."

"They're alright, I suppose." Acxa replied.

"That looks a lot like Lotor." Zethrid pointed out.

With a small cry, she slammed the sketchbook shut. "It isn't."

"Ain't he one of the main Galra poking fun at you? Why are you drawing him?"

Acxa sighed, that much was certainly true. He and his love, Ezor were particularly awful as far as insults go. As a team they dealt some substantial damage to her self-esteem. Regardless, Lotor was one of the best looking Galra around, she couldn't help feeling at least a few pangs of attraction to him. She could feel her cheeks turning a deeper shade of blue. "I'm not." She could tell that Zethrid wasn't buying it. "It just kind of looks like him. But it wasn't on purpose."

"Here, let me fix it!" Zethrid offered. Ignoring any and all utters of protest, she picked up one of Acxa's drawing utensils and etched in a thick black unibrow and handlebar mustache. "Much better."

Acxa's face fell, couldn't she have one day where someone didn't tamper with her art. Even if they were just silly scribbles, she'd have liked them to remain as they were. She truly wished that she had Narti around but she had a different schedule. Narti was less for conversation than she was, but she had her own way of comforting. She would always offer Acxa a chance to pet Kova and she would often read these edgy poems that she wrote. Sometimes, when she was feeling a little rebellious, she would sneak out some Earth technology she'd scavenged and show Acxa music she'd never heard before. That music certainly beat Narti's Galra collection—My Chemical Space Dance was not a favorite of Acxa's.

Her heart sank further, thinking about how Narti was no longer around. She eyed her ruined drawing and sighed. Just another day…

 **.oOo.**

"Oh no." Zethrid muttered to herself. "Oh no." She had went and messed this one up. She might have been imagining things, but she could swear that it looked like Acxa was going to cry. At least a little. This was no surprise to Zethrid, people usually shed at least one tear in while in her presence—she liked to think that it was because her muscles were so blindingly beautiful. "No, no," she uttered a bit louder, "you're not supposed to do that." She motioned to the dismal expression on the other's face. "You're supposed to laugh. You're supposed to picture the real Lotor looking like that, and laugh."

"You mean, you didn't do that just to ruin my art?" Acxa questioned.

"I would never ruin your art, just Lotor's face!" Zethrid insisted.

"His real face or…"

"Yeah!" Zethrid cringed, she had to real herself back in. Acxa probably wasn't interested in her knack for destruction. "I mean, if you want me to. I can beat up everyone who looks at you funny so you can wear these…" she nudged Acxa's barrettes, "clippy things without worrying about what everyone else thinks."

 **.oOo.**

Though Acxa could very much do without the poking and nudging, she had to appreciate Zethrid's efforts.

"I mean, I think that they're pretty cool. I don't know why Ezor doesn't like them, I think that she's just trying to impress Lotor because those totally look like something she would wear. And if she wore them, everyone would be wearing them…"

Acxa rolled her eyes, and here she thought that Zethrid was one of those dull-headed, arrogant, caterball players. It would seem as though she was more like Narti and herself. Awkward and surprisingly friendly despite her infamous reputation for throwing and punching things after seeing her test scores.

Being completely honest with herself, Acxa didn't know if she wanted to get mixed up with someone who was in detention every other afternoon. But Zethrid seemed genuine enough. "I don't want you to beat Lotor up." She spared a glance at her notebook, that was the last thing that she wanted.

Zethrid's 'aw quiznak' was so soft that Acxa almost didn't hear it. "Okay, but if you ever do, just let me know and I'll make sure he knows not to call you a dork for wearing glasses." She was lifting her up again muttering something akin to, 'so small.'

She rolled her eyes, she supposed that it was the sentiment that mattered. It would be nice to have who seemed to like her glasses and her hair clips and her drawings. It would be even nicer to have someone sculpted enough to scare someone like Lotor—and his gorgeous hair—off. Someone with a mouth like his was better off admired from afar anyways.

Acxa moved her collection of texts and art supplies to the side, and motioned for Zethrid to sit. "Really? You're actually going to let me stay?"

Acxa shrugged, "make yourself comfortable."

The half-Galra was all over that notion, propping her feet atop the table and leaning back in her chair. This year would be an interesting one.


End file.
